EUROZONE-GREECE/ELECTION-GOLDEN DAWN Far-right Golden Dawn exploits darker side of Greece's discontent

Record ID: 140082

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/ELECTION-GOLDEN DAWN Far-right Golden Dawn exploits darker side of Greece's discontent
  • Date: 11th September 2015
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF MEMBERS SINGING GREEK NATIONAL ANTHEM
  • Embargoed: 26th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAEAZELR4B5VI4AUH4O3R4BZNWL
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Every year, members of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party put on their black garb and travel to Thermopylae, the site of a mythic battle where King Leonidas and 300 Spartans defied a vast Persian army to the death in 480 BC, to commemorate the fallen in a ceremony full of speeches, songs, and flaming torches.
    The party, the euro zone's most extreme right-wing political party, whose leaders are on trial on charges of belonging to a criminal gang that attacked dark-skinned immigrants and leftists, has kept a low profile since a government crackdown put top party officials in jail in 2013.
    But now, released from pre-trial custody and free to speak in public, Golden Dawn lawmaker Ilias Kasidiaris roused the crowd with defiant denunciations of enemies at home and abroad ahead of a national election on September 20.
    "After a year's absence in which we were away from the battle, locked up in cells, we are back even stronger than before, because we proved - even if only to ourselves - that we are capable of making sacrifices for our country," said Kasidiaris speaking in front of a statue of Leonidas.
    Golden Dawn members of all ages sang the national anthem, lit torches and waved Greek flags as well as their own, a red flag decorated with a black version of the ancient Greek 'meander' symbol, which also resembles a swastika.
    Opinion polls show the party is likely to remain the third-biggest force in the Greek parliament, despite a relatively low-key election campaign.
    Its appeal has been largely immune to accusations of neo-Nazism and brutality, which the party denies. What first propelled it from obscurity into parliament in 2012 - anger at unemployment, austerity, corrupt politicians and immigrants - shows little sign of abating.
    Golden Dawn member of the European Parliament, Eleftherios Synadinos, said that the party's time was now.
    "We must not give up, we must not back down and we do not say it's now or never, but we say the time is now," said Synadinos.
    The party is the most popular among 18- to 24-year-olds, angered by the government's decision to reverse course and accept tough bailout terms from international creditors.
    Golden Dawn remained on the fringes for years after it was founded it in 1985 and in the 2009 election won 0.29 percent of the vote, or fewer than 20,000 votes.
    In 2012 it entered parliament for the first time with nearly seven percent and came third in last January's election as well, with 6.2 percent.
    Opinion polls show it is on track to win 5.5 to 7.2 percent of the vote on September 20, competing against centrists, Socialists and Communists for third place.
    In its manifesto, Golden Dawn says all "illegal immigrants" should be rounded up, detained and sent home. The party, whose members have been seen giving Nazi-style salutes and owning Nazi paraphernalia, also wants tax breaks to boost Greece's low birth rate to "avoid us (Greeks) becoming a minority in our own country".
    In a pre-election TV spot, leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, who was under house arrest until July, stands beside the national flag in a suit and urges Greeks to support the party's "battle against those who have pillaged your dreams".
    That resonates with Greeks who have struggled during their worst post-war crisis, with record unemployment, collapsing wages and collapsing living standards.
    Europe's migrant crisis has also helped the party as Greece struggles to cope with large flows of refugees driven to the European Union by war and poverty in the Middle East.
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